K&L Gates Triage: An Insider’s Perspective on the Health Care Debate in Washington, DC
This Week in Washington: Senate Finance Committee reports out Modernizing and Ensuring PBM Accountability Act; House Ways and Means Committee reports out healthcare bills; Senate Appropriations Committee reports out FY 2024...more
On Thursday, April 27, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released two highly anticipated proposed rules... Together, these would reshape the federal regulatory landscape for Medicaid and the Children’s Health...more
A recent survey found that the average wait time for a new patient to see a physician in 15 of the largest cities in the U.S. was 26 days, up from 24.1 days in 2017. Timely access to health care providers has long been an...more
The proposed rule would make transparency-related updates to state directed payments (SDPs). It would also require states to submit an annual payment analysis that compares managed care plans’ payment rates for routine...more
Congress was in session, and it was a busy healthcare week at the committee level, with six hearings focused specifically on health issues. On the House floor, Republicans passed the Limit, Save, Grow Act—a bill that raises...more
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently published the Advancing Interoperability and Improving Prior Authorization Processes Proposed Rule (Prior Authorization Proposed Rule), and, if certain components...more
Over 2500 hospitals across the country historically have relied upon Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) Medicaid payments for financial stability. These DSH payments, made in large measure to hospitals with high Medicaid...more
This Week in Washington: 118th Congress begins, House finally chooses Speaker...more
On Tuesday, December 13, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) released a proposed rule (“New Proposed Rule”) to improve the prior authorization process and advance interoperability for Medicare Advantage...more
On December 13, 2022, CMS is set to publish in the Federal Register a proposed rule (Proposed Rule) requiring certain Medicare, Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program, and Qualified Health Plan fee-for-service and...more
On September 7, 2022, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule in the Federal Register to reduce red tape and make it easier for individuals to enroll and retain eligibility in Medicaid, the...more
On August 31, 2022, CMS issued a proposed rule to reduce coverage gaps by streamlining the application, enrollment, and renewal process for coverage in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) (the Proposed...more
On Aug. 4, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published its proposed rule, Nondiscrimination in Health Care and Activities (Proposed Rule), to revise its regulations pertaining to Section 1557 of the...more
On August 4, 2022, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM or proposed rule) to reinterpret section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which prohibits...more
On April 27, 2021, CMS issued the fiscal year (FY) 2022 proposed rule for the hospital inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) and long-term care hospital (LTCH) prospective payment system (the Proposed Rule). Among...more
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is launching new value-based programs with great fervor as a central strategy to bend the healthcare cost curve. Value-based reimbursement models linked to achieving the...more
On March 4, 2019, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) published a wide-ranging proposed rule (“Proposed Rule”) with the intent to “move the health care ecosystem in the direction of interoperability” in...more
In recent weeks, the states of California and Washington, and New York City have proposed expanding Medicaid eligibility for undocumented young adults. Given Medicaid’s combination of state and federal funding, House and...more
On February 11, 2019, CMS issued a proposed rule, to improve access to electronic health information (the Proposed Rule). The Proposed Rule results from the 21st Century Cures Act (the Cures Act), in which CMS and the Office...more
Upcoming Hearings - Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019 - Senate Finance Committee: “Drug Pricing in America: A Prescription for Change, Part II” - The second hearing in a series on drug pricing in the Senate Finance Committee...more
On February 11, 2019, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) released complementary proposed rules to promote the sharing of...more
On October 17th, the Administration released its semiannual forecast of the rules that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will be churning out over the next year. The list includes nearly 200 rules, 23 of which...more
Currently, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) defines a "public charge" as someone who is or is likely to become "primarily dependent on the government for subsistence, as demonstrated by either the receipt of...more
On January 20, 2017, businessman Donald J. Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States following a contentious and unconventional 2016 presidential election. Republicans also successfully maintained control...more
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published a proposed rule last week regarding the cancellation of three bundled payment models and an incentive payment model while also reducing the scope of a third...more